Gaming News Tidbits 02-07-2006
Terra Nova (a fine site that discusses all sorts of elements of MMOs) has a piece that discusses some data that was collected over 8 months of observing players in World of Warcraft. The results are extremely interesting in that WOW is played more by a collection of individuals versus groups. This is much different than what was seen in games like Everquest and Final Fantasy XI. Its a great read and I know that I find myself playing solo versus grouping just due to the lack of consistency of the individuals in the group, or due to the amount of time I have to play.
EA announced their earnings this last week, and the question Joystiq asks is this just the beginning of the pain that game manufacturers will be feeling in the coming year or so. I have been hearing about the downturn of gaming for sometime now, and I think the problem is a combination of repeated sequels (I mean how many versions of Madden does one family need???) and a simple cost factor. Personally, the problem is that many games are just too expensive - I just cannot spend 60 bucks on a single title when I can wait for 6 months or more (I have a large backlog) and get it for half that price.
Ronald Moore (Battlestar Galactica producer) will be doing a keynote at the Game Developer's Conference this year. He will be doing his presentation for the Vision track and maybe this will help some developers move away from repeated sequels (see how I tie back to the EA post above - thats a mark of quality literature 
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Carnival of Gamers for the month of February is being hosted over at Slashdot. It can best be described as a collection of video game blog articles. The articles are submitted by the authors, and I have taken it upon myself to submit a post for the March carnival - so keep your eyes open
